As a matter of fact this is partly eltee's own question, he is trying to make up his mind on Blued or bare...

I know as we have talked about it as well.

So the discussion to at lease decide which is what the real prop was is on subject.

Then at least he can say, "I know it is **** on the real thing so I went with****** because I felt it was right..or because I love the look of*****._________________I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

I see nothing wrong with a healthy debate about this especially as the OP is discussing finish options. Plus I have nothing but respect for Rich and Eltee and there contributions to the Blade Runner world.

This project is awesome and of great interest to people who are doing real shooters like myself.

That is why you have to study all the pictures you can find and then you see a consensus of what your are seeing.

All of the picture I looked at supported the lighter receiver and bulldog with the black covers, black ammo housing and clip and black pistol grip frame with black paint on the bottom of the butt plate.

ON movie sets specially old movie sets light reflection from those OLD Kreg Lights was a problem from ANY shinny surface so they had dulling paints and sprays to kill it.

These paints and sprays can change the color shown in a picture or the film, depending on how the light and what light is hitting it. (some times they will light a set with color lights or gels..)

Also a number of the shots in the film were changed from daylight to night time shots chemically.

This also can effect ho all colors look.

Rich

PS I was on a set where the prop master was using HAIR SPRAY, colored hair spray to touch up painted surfaces and he told me he COULD use hair sprays but NO paint, because if he used paint the painter's union would cause a fuss...but there was no hair sprayer's union...and the painters could not fuss as it was ONLY hair spray._________________I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

Yeah, and it's not permanent when you need to dull something rented or on a location that you would like to return to one day.
The standard for such things is "Streaks 'N Tips" coloured hair spray or even Arrid for dulling. Krylon makes a removable dulling spray that we use quite a bit. It's unlikely one of these were used on the blaster but putty might have been used to remove any highlights in the close ups.
That's only one of the problems.
No two still cameras that have ever pictured the blaster have been set to the same F-stop or ISO or even been in remotely the same conditions that were seen on film over 30 years ago. And now it's all digital.
In addition, every computer screen is set differently so the colours change in slight ways for everyone. That's why we have Pantone colours in print. You set the values or the Pantone number and it always comes out the same even if it looks a bit different on the screen.

LOL the same discussion again. This feels like 2002! I have been a firm believer that the blaster never had a blued look, the bluing was removed prior to shooting. Of course with dark steel is so hard to tell, as its a surface that catches surrounding colors hues being a dark grey, plus the high shine won't help either.

I kind of started that old thread back in RPF. Most of my observations where proven to be right (even if some people in the "known" said contrary).

To me, the Steyr parts in the blaster are medium dark polished steel. Besides that, I'm happy everyone has their own idea of how the gun has to look.

We're working on two receivers but only had one barrel so the lathe was fired up and the program initiated. .44 caliber commercial barrel stock was cut to length, turned, crowned, threaded with shoulder and lede.

Both receivers are done with cutting and milling. The Steyr hardened steel receiver was a nightmare on cutting heads. We are using a commercial grade Lagun mill but we ended up using 1 1/2 cutters per receiver.

The Steyr bolt end caps now have to be machined. There are no flat surfaces on the rear of these so solidly mounting them for milling will be a challenge. The silver one on the left is from Rich Coyle and we must machine the Steyr one on the right to match.

That's awesome, Rich. Now that I've seen the difficulty of machining the receiver, I've kind of backgrounded my hunt for the Steyr. I just wouldn't trust myself to not mess it up. A real parts blaster remains a grail prop, though. It's only fitting that you have an Ultimate Blaster after all blood, sweat, and tears you've dedicated to it over the years. Also, it's very cool your parts mate perfectly with the real deal.

Great update on that shooter eltee! It is a very technical and precise work you`re doing and there's no room for mistake it seems.
Good to see that Rich's bolt assembly is fitting nicely into a real Steyr.